I never would have guessed that I would be at home at 10:39 pm on a friday night and start to write a blog entry. Being at home on a Friday night isn't that big of a deal. I have a 14 month old child which means I have no social life, but writing a blog entry? I should at least be playing WoW. Well there have been some more massive changes to the balance tree and I just can't wait for a better time to write this post. I have to do it now.
This post is entirely based off of Blue posts on the forums and off of the WotLK Beta talent calculator. None of these changes have been seen in an actual Beta build yet. Also, there are like to be more changes to come. Most of the raid viability changes released yesterday are not in the talent calculator yet.
Note: 1. I am only going to review talents that have changed in relation to the last beta build. Talents like Natures Reach are still different then the current live build, but have not changed in the beta at all. 2. I obviously haven't had time to run a lot of numbers for all of the changes. In most cases this is my first impression of the situation.
Calculator Changes:
Tier 1
Natures Grasp - This is no longer a talented ability. It is being converted to a trainable spell with a 100% proc rate (src). I suppose this change is good, but it doesn't have much of an impact on me. I have never been a big fan of it so making it trainable does nothing to reduce the tree's bloat in my opinion. I would never have picked it up anyway.
Genesis (New Talent) - Increases the damage and healing done by our periodic spells by 5%. Currently DoTs make up at most 25% of my DPS. So a 5 % increase in DoT damage would only increase my DPS by 1% - 1.25%. This is definately a bonus, but it isn't huge.
Furor (resto tree) - Increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin Form by 10%. Funny, this talent has no use for resto druids but it is in the resto tree. Anyway, this is a great change. It won't have a huge impact, but all of my points in the resto tree will now benifit my dps role. This means Moonkin are no longer forced to pick up useless talents anywhere.
Tier 2
Moonglow - Moved from tier 5 to tier 2. No real impact for balance, but it is great for restos.
Natures Mastery (Semi New Talent) - Was formally Focused Starlight and now includes a 4% crit bonus for Nourish and Healing Touch. Again, it has no real impact on balance but it is great for restos.
Control of Nature - Being combined with Natures Focus in the Resto tree. (src) It is primarily a PvP talent so it will have little impact on most raiding moonkin.
Tier 3
Nature's Splendor (New Talent) - Increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 30%. First of all, this is great for restos. More duration = more healing. I am unsure how this will play out for Moonkin. This may be an expendable talent. In case you don't remember the Starfire glyph increases your Moonfire DoT by 3 seconds. Since Starfire will be cast in lest then 3seconds on average, it is techically possible to keep Moonfire up for quite a while without refreshing it. Therefore increase duration will have little impact. It will mean a lot more for IS. One other thing. How are they going to calculate the damage? Moonfire currently ticks ever 3 seconds. This talent increases moonfire's duration by 4 seconds. When is that lst second going to do its damage?
Natures Grace - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 3. Again, no impact on moonkin but Phae over at Resto4Life likes it for restos.
Tier 4
Celestial Focus - The Push-back resistance is removed, but "increases your total spell haste by 3% For some reason I think there are a couple of ways to interpert this tool tip. Do I have a 15% chance at the haste buff or is it static? My guess is it is a static 3% spell haste buff, In which case this becomes a mush have talent. Since this is one of the talents that we currently don't spec into for raiding, this change increases our talent bloat.
Tier 5
Improved Insect Swarm (New Talent) - Increases damage done by your Wrath spell by 3% when the target is afflicted by your Insect Swarm, and Increases the Crit chance of your Starfire spell when the target is afflicted by your Moonfire. AWESOME NEW TALENT. I nice basic buff that synergizes with other moonkin glyphs and abilities.. It I think it favors Starfire due to the glyphs that extend MF's duration and it will make SF more mana efficent due to Mana on Crit. The great part is that it is decent for wrath also.
Edit: I have read some comments out on various forums that say this change isn't that great for Starfire and better for Wrath. Their reasoning is that a straight increase in damage will produce more damage then an percentage increase to crit. This is true. In fact the 3% increase to wrath damage will increase single spell damage by 3%. The 3% increase to crit will increase single spell damage by only 2.4%. However there is Natures Grace and Mana Efficency to consider. If you include Natures Grace and lookat it form a DPS stand point. The Wrath buff increases DPS by 3% and the SF buff increases DPS by 2.94%. If you look at mana efficency the mana efficency of SF goes up by 4.59% but only 3% for Wrath. All in all I think it is fairly well balanced, assuming that our mana pool can handle the additional casting due to Nature's Grace.
Raid Stacking Changes
The changes listed from here on out are not in the new talent calculater but were a part of the Raid Stacking posts made by Zarhym. None of these changes are listed on the talent calculator currently. In this section I will not only be evaluating the changes but how the Moonkin buff compares to the buffs it does not stack with. With that in mind I will speculate on which class is best at applying the buff and how this will affect Moonkin raid viability. Please remember that this analysis could be completely incorrect once we see how these changes take affect on a real beta build.
Tier 7
Moonkin Aura - There is no change in the Aura but it won't stack with Elemental Oath a new WotLK buff from Elemental Shaman. Both buffs provide a 5% increase in crit chance. The only real difference is Elemental Oath is currently target based and Moonkin Aura is an Aura. Therefore Moonkin Aura can be out ranged where as Elemental Oath cannot be.
Which is Better? - - Elemental Oath, because it is target based.
Moonkin Raid Viability: This is a reduction. The only plus is that elemental shaman are fairly rare in raid guilds.
Improved Moonkin Aura - It is now a static 3% haste buff as opposed to the 20% haste buff on crit for 8 seconds. This is actually a pretty big nerf. If we assume a standard crit rate of 25%, the old haste buff would be up 19% of the time. This would result in and average haste buff of 3.85%. As you can clearly see the old haste buff is significantly better then the new static 3%. Imp Moonkin Aura will not stack with Swift Retribution and Ret Pally buff. Both are Auras, but the Pally buff also comes with the regular Retribution Aura. It is generally considered to be a bad Idea to have Retribution Aura.
Which is Better? - - Slightly Moonkin Aura
Moonkin RaidViability: This is actually a decrease in raid viability when compared to the onld Imp Moonkin Aura, but guilds my find us desirable to provide this buff.
Improved Fairie Fire - No longer affects Melee or Ranged hit chance and competes with Misery from shadow priest for a 3% buff to spell hit.
Which is Better? - - Misery by far. Shadow priest will apply it using their normal DPS rotations. For moonkin it is an extra spell that will cost us a global cooldown and reduce our DPS.
Moonkin RaidViability: A big reduction in moonkin raid viablity. There is now no reason to spec Imp FF if you have an Spriest in raid.
Earth and Moon - Now affects all spell classes and increases spell damage by 13%. It competes with Ebon Plaguebringer from Unholy DKs and Curse of Elements from warlocks.
Which is Better? - - There is some debate over this. On one hand, CoE not only increases damage but also lowers resistances resulting in higher damage. With the resistance CoE is best. On the other hand Ebon Plaguebringer and EnM will be applied during normal spell rotations, and it allows the warlock to use a damaging curse. With out the spell pen on CoE, EnM and Ebon Plaguebringer are better.
Moonkin RaidViability: Who knows how prevelent Unholy DKs will be in raids. This could be an increase if they do something about the resistances, but right now it is a reduction
What does this mean for Moonkin Raiding?
First of all, the raid stacking changes are bad for moonkin over all. All of our best buffs can be applied by a mana battery class, a superior DPS class, or a class with other unique viability. Moonkin raiding is obviously not dead, but moonkin will have a hard time finding 25 man raids unless Moonkin DPS is improved relative to pure DPS classes.
The new talents have made the Bloat issue a whole lot worse. The number of talents usable by moonkin has increase from 76 in the current live build, to 92 in the old beta, to 95 in the new beta. To make matters worse, blizzard eliminated several of the useless talents in the Balance tree and replace them with decent talents. I could easily spec in to 86 talents, but I will have only 71 points. That means I will have to skip 15 good talents.
Blizzard has said that they are looking into the bloat and will shave some points off, but I don't think a few is quite enough. It is clear to me that there is still quite a bit of work to be done.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Raid Stacking in WotLK
Last week Ghostcrawler put a post on the WotLK beta forums regarding raid stack and how they plan to change raid buffs in Wrath of the Lich King. The post is here.
It was a fairly vague, but basically stated that blizzard didn't want guild to build raids based upon one player having a specific buff for maximum damage. For instance, a guild shouldn't hold up a raid because they are looking for a Shadow Priest to provide Misery. Players should be chosen based upon ability and personal preference, not on a buff they provide.
In theory I agreed, but the post is big on generalities and light on specifics. So it was very hard to evaluate the post without really knowing what would change.
Last night Zarhym posted the specifics and the changes are HUGE!!!!! Find the post here.
This will have a big impact on all classes but I will of course focus on moonkin. They have made big changes to many of the proposed WotLK abilities and significantly changed many of the current live buffs and debuffs.
What's Changed?
Improved Scorch (Fire Mage):
New - Increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
Old - Increases Fire, Frost and Arcane damage, against the target.
Improved Moonkin Aura:
New - Grants 3% haste of all types.
Old - Grants 20% spell haste when they critically hit with spells for 8 sec. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.
Earth and Moon:
New - Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.
Old - Increases Nature and Arcane damage done to the target by 6%.
Misery (Shadow Priest):
New - Causes spells cast at the target to have +3% spell hit.
Old - Cause the target to take an additional 5% spell damage.
Improved Faerie Fire:
New - No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit (3%).
Old - Increases Melee, Ranged, and Spell Hit chance by 3%.
What Doesn't Stack?
Spell Critical Strike Chance Buff: Moonkin Aura, Elemental Oath(Ele Shaman)
Spell Critical Strike Chance Debuff: Improved Scorch(Fire Mage), Winter's Chill (Frost Mage)
Increased Spell Damage Taken Debuff: Ebon Plaguebringer (Unholy DK), Earth and Moon, Curse of the Elements (Affliction Warlock)
Increased Spell Hit Chance Taken Debuff: Improved Faerie Fire, Misery (Shadow Priest)
Percentage Haste Increase (All Types): Improved Moonkin Aura, Swift Retribution (Ret Pally)
Melee Hit Chance Reduction Debuff: Insect Swarm, Scorpid Sting (Hunter)
Stat Add Buff: Mark of the Wild
What Does This Mean?
To be completely honest I don't really know. This is such a massive change that it is impossible to quantify how it will all play out, but I can already see some of the possibilities. This means very different things for 10-mans and 25-mans. Class balancing in terms of DPS is going to have to change dramatically.
Ten man raids:
I think this is a great change for 10-man raids. I will allow them to have most if not all of the same buffs that a 25 man raid will have. It should allow Blizzard to build tougher content for the 10-mans to make them real challenges instead of overly dumbed down versions of the 25-mans.
In fact it may bring the 10-mans up to the same level of toughness as the 25-mans. Blizzard is going to have to tune the 10-man fights for all of the buffs or the boss encounters are going to be a joke. This means that the 10-mans could be very unforgiving. If your Shadow Priest dies your casters are out 3% chance to hit if you don't have an Imp FF Moonkin. That would a significant drop in DPS, and spell a wipe if you could only barely kill the boss if things went perfectly.
Twenty Five Man Raids:
I am very unsure how this will affect 25-mans.
It is clear that Blizzard realizes this is going to be an issue. In his post Zarhym said:
In terms of DPS, if one class or spec lags behind others in the same role, that spec will be excluded from most serious raid guilds. All of the work that Blizzard has done to improve Shadow Priest, Ret Pallys, Moonkin, and all of the other "off specs" will be for not if those specs cannot keep up with the more traditional specs in terms of DPS. Healers and tanks will have less of an issue because their services are in greater demand, don't be surprised if the same thing happens here.
My Concluding Thoughts.
Blizzard is really making a bold move here. There are definitely positives in this change, but I see a whole lot of negatives. While I realize they are trying to make the game and raiding more accessible to all people, I worry that they are taking the uniqueness out of the classes. That uniqueness and customization is one of the main things that make this game fun. However, this is not my biggest worry.
I started playing Blizzard games with Warcraft 2, and since have played almost every game they put out since then. So, I have a lot of respect for Blizzards ability at game design, but they have proven overtime that they are not perfect (nobody is). I worry that those imperfections will break moonkin again just as I thought we were getting some respectability. Since it has taken Blizzard 4 years to fix moonkin the first time, I don't think I could wait another 4 for them to fix us again.
I don't know what is going to happen. I only see possibilities, but I will I will guarantee you one thing. Blizzard doesn't know how this is going to work out either. History has proved that the collective mind of 10 million players is smarter then the collective mind of several hundred Blizzard employees. Blizzard will build what they think is a well balanced game and the players will find the loopholes and exploit it to its fullest potential. If it wasn't true then we wouldn't have Powershifting by Feral Druids, Totem Twisting by Enhancement Shaman, and stacking 5 Warlocks for Imp Shadowbolt. Sure, they will fix these problems eventually, but if these examples are any indication it will take years and I don't know how many people will wait that long.
Follow ups:
1. There were quite a few changes to moonkin abilities that I didn't really analyze here. This post is getting to long. I will post something soon about what this info means for speccing moonkin and how this could change the value of some of our talents. Hopefully the polish pass will be released soon so I can do them together.
2. Several other bloggers are reacting to this same information. I will try and list them here.
Resto4Life: Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs
Yet Another Warlock Nerf: Nobody Panic (Not yet, at least)
It was a fairly vague, but basically stated that blizzard didn't want guild to build raids based upon one player having a specific buff for maximum damage. For instance, a guild shouldn't hold up a raid because they are looking for a Shadow Priest to provide Misery. Players should be chosen based upon ability and personal preference, not on a buff they provide.
In theory I agreed, but the post is big on generalities and light on specifics. So it was very hard to evaluate the post without really knowing what would change.
Last night Zarhym posted the specifics and the changes are HUGE!!!!! Find the post here.
This will have a big impact on all classes but I will of course focus on moonkin. They have made big changes to many of the proposed WotLK abilities and significantly changed many of the current live buffs and debuffs.
What's Changed?
Improved Scorch (Fire Mage):
New - Increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
Old - Increases Fire, Frost and Arcane damage, against the target.
Improved Moonkin Aura:
New - Grants 3% haste of all types.
Old - Grants 20% spell haste when they critically hit with spells for 8 sec. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.
Earth and Moon:
New - Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.
Old - Increases Nature and Arcane damage done to the target by 6%.
Misery (Shadow Priest):
New - Causes spells cast at the target to have +3% spell hit.
Old - Cause the target to take an additional 5% spell damage.
Improved Faerie Fire:
New - No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit (3%).
Old - Increases Melee, Ranged, and Spell Hit chance by 3%.
What Doesn't Stack?
Spell Critical Strike Chance Buff: Moonkin Aura, Elemental Oath(Ele Shaman)
Spell Critical Strike Chance Debuff: Improved Scorch(Fire Mage), Winter's Chill (Frost Mage)
Increased Spell Damage Taken Debuff: Ebon Plaguebringer (Unholy DK), Earth and Moon, Curse of the Elements (Affliction Warlock)
Increased Spell Hit Chance Taken Debuff: Improved Faerie Fire, Misery (Shadow Priest)
Percentage Haste Increase (All Types): Improved Moonkin Aura, Swift Retribution (Ret Pally)
Melee Hit Chance Reduction Debuff: Insect Swarm, Scorpid Sting (Hunter)
Stat Add Buff: Mark of the Wild
What Does This Mean?
To be completely honest I don't really know. This is such a massive change that it is impossible to quantify how it will all play out, but I can already see some of the possibilities. This means very different things for 10-mans and 25-mans. Class balancing in terms of DPS is going to have to change dramatically.
Ten man raids:
I think this is a great change for 10-man raids. I will allow them to have most if not all of the same buffs that a 25 man raid will have. It should allow Blizzard to build tougher content for the 10-mans to make them real challenges instead of overly dumbed down versions of the 25-mans.
In fact it may bring the 10-mans up to the same level of toughness as the 25-mans. Blizzard is going to have to tune the 10-man fights for all of the buffs or the boss encounters are going to be a joke. This means that the 10-mans could be very unforgiving. If your Shadow Priest dies your casters are out 3% chance to hit if you don't have an Imp FF Moonkin. That would a significant drop in DPS, and spell a wipe if you could only barely kill the boss if things went perfectly.
Twenty Five Man Raids:
I am very unsure how this will affect 25-mans.
- It should make some of the fights a little more forgiving. If your moonkin dies then a Warlock can put of CoE, or you may have an Unholy DK to put up Ebon Plague.
- I bet we will see a lot more respecs before raid. People will build their specs around a normal raid set up. For instance, right now I don't see a reason to spec into Imp FF. An Spriest can put it up without losing a DPS Global Cooldown. However, if the Spriest doesn't show up one night, I will have to make a quick trip to Darn before a raid.
- If classes are balanced near perfectly, it will make life easier for the Raid Leader. The raid won't have to sit there and wait for another pally healer to long on to get a third buff. However, if there are issues with class balance it could make the life a lot harder on the guild's leadership. If one class can do more damage then most other classes, then guilds will be tempted to stack that one class more then others. The probably won't lose any buffs because some many class can provide the same buffs now.
It is clear that Blizzard realizes this is going to be an issue. In his post Zarhym said:
Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the
performance of every class. It should not be assumed that one class' current
performance relative to others in beta is final. Some classes (and
specializations) will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many may
feel the change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all of
those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.
In terms of DPS, if one class or spec lags behind others in the same role, that spec will be excluded from most serious raid guilds. All of the work that Blizzard has done to improve Shadow Priest, Ret Pallys, Moonkin, and all of the other "off specs" will be for not if those specs cannot keep up with the more traditional specs in terms of DPS. Healers and tanks will have less of an issue because their services are in greater demand, don't be surprised if the same thing happens here.
My Concluding Thoughts.
Blizzard is really making a bold move here. There are definitely positives in this change, but I see a whole lot of negatives. While I realize they are trying to make the game and raiding more accessible to all people, I worry that they are taking the uniqueness out of the classes. That uniqueness and customization is one of the main things that make this game fun. However, this is not my biggest worry.
I started playing Blizzard games with Warcraft 2, and since have played almost every game they put out since then. So, I have a lot of respect for Blizzards ability at game design, but they have proven overtime that they are not perfect (nobody is). I worry that those imperfections will break moonkin again just as I thought we were getting some respectability. Since it has taken Blizzard 4 years to fix moonkin the first time, I don't think I could wait another 4 for them to fix us again.
I don't know what is going to happen. I only see possibilities, but I will I will guarantee you one thing. Blizzard doesn't know how this is going to work out either. History has proved that the collective mind of 10 million players is smarter then the collective mind of several hundred Blizzard employees. Blizzard will build what they think is a well balanced game and the players will find the loopholes and exploit it to its fullest potential. If it wasn't true then we wouldn't have Powershifting by Feral Druids, Totem Twisting by Enhancement Shaman, and stacking 5 Warlocks for Imp Shadowbolt. Sure, they will fix these problems eventually, but if these examples are any indication it will take years and I don't know how many people will wait that long.
Follow ups:
1. There were quite a few changes to moonkin abilities that I didn't really analyze here. This post is getting to long. I will post something soon about what this info means for speccing moonkin and how this could change the value of some of our talents. Hopefully the polish pass will be released soon so I can do them together.
2. Several other bloggers are reacting to this same information. I will try and list them here.
Resto4Life: Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs
Yet Another Warlock Nerf: Nobody Panic (Not yet, at least)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
General Update - Aug 08
I realize over the past two weeks I have written 5 posts without a toon or guild update. And a couple of you may be wondering what is going on with me.
Graylo/Lastt Standd Update:
Graylo has been in Lastt Standd for 3 weeks now, and I feel like I am at a place where I can reasonably evaluate the guild. I think the transfer has been mostly positive, but there are a few things I don't like. I'll try and break my analysis down into sections.
Raiding: The raiding has been fairly good. I've killed two bosses (Gorefiend & Bloodboil) that I had not killed before. We have the first for in Hyjal on farm and the first 4 in BT on farm. The down side is that after killing bloodboil that once we haven't done it again. That is very frustrating. We also walked into SSC and tried to down Vashj over last weekend. Granted we had quite a few pugs in the group but I expected better from the guild. I'm sure we can get her if we put some real time into it, but I'm not sure we will put that time into it. Finally, attendance has been a little low lately. That is to be expected a little bit right now due to people going back to school and the holiday, so hopefully we will be back to normal soon.
Leadership: When I joined the guild I worried that they would be a bunch of jerks. I got that impression a little bit from the recruitment post. Luckily they are a little bit more mellow then I expected, which is good. However, the GM can be a bit of a hot head, and I think he lets his emotions get the better of him a little more then I would like. Over all they aren't bad, but I don't get the impression that they are a group of guys that are going to hold the guild together for years.
Personality: This is the one area that I may not have enough experience yet to really evaluate fairly. It takes a while to get used to a new guild especially when you don't know anyone in it. The overall personality isn't bad. It reminds me of FoC quite a bit, young, goofy, and male dominated. While I liked FoC and like Lastt Standd for the most part, I prefer old WA more. I am probably confusing my friendships with the guild personality a little bit but they are hard to separate. Some of the things I loved about WA was that its mentality was a little older. We had quite a few girls and quite a few families. While we were serious about raiding, the general atmosphere was a little more laid back and comfortable.
Overall I am content with my choice to leave. Things are not perfect, but they would not have been perfect at WA either. At the very least I am raiding, and that is all I can really ask for right now. I have gotten into every raid I was available for. To make a long story short, I am content. I won't guarantee that I will be in Lastt Standd for a really long time. A lot is going to change when the expansion hits, but I don't have any plans to move right now and I am not looking for a new guild.
Wandering Alliance Update:
I am not involved in WA much any more but I do still have a couple of alts there to keep in touch with friends and such. I logged into one of my alts last night and was surprised to see that WA is planning on transferring servers. Apparently the remaining leaders of WA are tired of the bad server and of constantly trying to rebuild the guild. Raiding hasn't gotten any better since I left and they they are having problems with new members getting gear and leaving. It doesn't sound like they are trying to rebuild or merge with another guild. It looks like they are just trying to find a better place to play until the expansion hits.
I have no clue as to what this means for me. It sounds like all of my friends plan on transferring. I also don't know if they plan on disbanding the guild. I could long in one day without a guild. Ultimately it doesn't really matter. Chances are once I am sure of where Graylo is going to land I will transfer my serious alts there.
The biggest impact to me is probably just the opportunity it provides in the future. If I do decide to transfer some time in the future their new server would obviously be a potential target because of the friends I will have there. It sounds like they are headed for the Garona server. It is a Central time-zone PvE server that is very alliance dominated. It doesn't sound like a bad place to land.
Graypal Update:
Dead in the water. Nothing is going on with him. I'm not really interested in him right now because I can't raid him, I don't PvP, and I would rather level my alts then do random quests with him. I really don't see much happening with him until the expansion. I haven't paid much attention the Spriest changes in WotLK, but my quick looks have me interested and worried a little bit. I may have to do a post on Spriest changes coming up.
Grayfel Update:
Grayfel is now about 8 bars into level 67 and things are going fairly well. He won't be 70 before the end of August, but hopefully it won't be to long. A while ago I talked about my spec. At the time I was 41 Affliction with 10 or so in Destruction. I wasn't happy with it because I was ripping aggro of my pet quite a bit and fears can be dangerous. After talking to some people in game and looking at some of the comments I got here I decided to give Demonology a try. I am currently 15/43/0. At first I liked it. I was killing things at about the same rate and I wasn't ripping aggro off the Felguard. However, I have started to go sour on Demonology. I may not be ripping aggro off of him but I spend a lot of time healing the pet. I guess I expected him to be tougher.
Anyway, I'm thinking of respecing again. The question is should I try Destro or go back to Affliction. Right now I think I'm leaning towards trying Destro. I'm obviously used to playing a nuker with Graylo. The really question is what pet I should use. Do I go for a Voidwalker tank, or more DPS from an imp or Succubus. If any one has a spec that I should try please let me know, also let me know which pet I should use.
Graysin Update:
You may be asking "Who's Graysin?" He is a Blood Elf Paladin that I started a couple of months ago on the Cho'gall server. If you don't know Cho'gall is a central time-zone PvP server with a very strong raiding community. It has three guilds that have cleared Sunwell. An Alliance guild is ranked number 10 in the world and the top Horde guild Death Wish is ranked 16th in the world according to WowJutsu. He is currently level 21 and spec as Retribution.
I created him for a couple of reasons. First, I created him when I was still in WA with Graylo and was having issues. Its nice sometimes to do something when no one can see you. I also had a desire to try out a PvP server and see some of the horde areas. I chose paladin because I have recently be come interested in tanking as a pally, and I figured that if I ever decided to raid with him horde guilds would need paladins much like alliance guilds need shaman. I never really expected to get him this high of a level, but I keep coming back to him every so often. I think it is because it is so easy to accomplish something when your toon is so low of a level. You put in a couple of hours and hour toon jumps a level or two. When compared to Grayfel that is lightning fast. I put 3 or 4 hours into Grayfel last night and only got him a third of the way through a level.
Anyway, I don't really expect him to be a serious effort but who knows.
One last thing. I have praised WoW-Pro.com before for its excellent and free leveling guides. I used Jamie's Alliance guide to take Graylo from 30 - 60. For Graysin I have used Snowflake's two blood elf guides 1-12 and 12-21. I highly recommend both. They are very well written with great maps and pictures. If your looking to level a bloodelf or just want to check out Ghostlands on your new little horde toon, check these guides out.
Graytom Update:
I had expected him to be my 4th 70 after Grayfel, but I now expect he will go permanently inactive like my warrior and hunter. I am still very interested in playing a shaman in general but I think he got started at the wrong time. I'm not going to pay 25 dollars to transfer a level 14 toon to a new server. Plus with most of my friends leaving Eitrigg there won't be much point in me hang around there. If I do deside to play a shaman again I will probably just start a new one on whatever server I have Graylo on.
Anyway, that is my wow life in a nutshell right now. To all of my friends that read this blog please keep in touch. It would be good to hear what is going on with you guys in the comments or in the email.
Graylo/Lastt Standd Update:
Graylo has been in Lastt Standd for 3 weeks now, and I feel like I am at a place where I can reasonably evaluate the guild. I think the transfer has been mostly positive, but there are a few things I don't like. I'll try and break my analysis down into sections.
Raiding: The raiding has been fairly good. I've killed two bosses (Gorefiend & Bloodboil) that I had not killed before. We have the first for in Hyjal on farm and the first 4 in BT on farm. The down side is that after killing bloodboil that once we haven't done it again. That is very frustrating. We also walked into SSC and tried to down Vashj over last weekend. Granted we had quite a few pugs in the group but I expected better from the guild. I'm sure we can get her if we put some real time into it, but I'm not sure we will put that time into it. Finally, attendance has been a little low lately. That is to be expected a little bit right now due to people going back to school and the holiday, so hopefully we will be back to normal soon.
Leadership: When I joined the guild I worried that they would be a bunch of jerks. I got that impression a little bit from the recruitment post. Luckily they are a little bit more mellow then I expected, which is good. However, the GM can be a bit of a hot head, and I think he lets his emotions get the better of him a little more then I would like. Over all they aren't bad, but I don't get the impression that they are a group of guys that are going to hold the guild together for years.
Personality: This is the one area that I may not have enough experience yet to really evaluate fairly. It takes a while to get used to a new guild especially when you don't know anyone in it. The overall personality isn't bad. It reminds me of FoC quite a bit, young, goofy, and male dominated. While I liked FoC and like Lastt Standd for the most part, I prefer old WA more. I am probably confusing my friendships with the guild personality a little bit but they are hard to separate. Some of the things I loved about WA was that its mentality was a little older. We had quite a few girls and quite a few families. While we were serious about raiding, the general atmosphere was a little more laid back and comfortable.
Overall I am content with my choice to leave. Things are not perfect, but they would not have been perfect at WA either. At the very least I am raiding, and that is all I can really ask for right now. I have gotten into every raid I was available for. To make a long story short, I am content. I won't guarantee that I will be in Lastt Standd for a really long time. A lot is going to change when the expansion hits, but I don't have any plans to move right now and I am not looking for a new guild.
Wandering Alliance Update:
I am not involved in WA much any more but I do still have a couple of alts there to keep in touch with friends and such. I logged into one of my alts last night and was surprised to see that WA is planning on transferring servers. Apparently the remaining leaders of WA are tired of the bad server and of constantly trying to rebuild the guild. Raiding hasn't gotten any better since I left and they they are having problems with new members getting gear and leaving. It doesn't sound like they are trying to rebuild or merge with another guild. It looks like they are just trying to find a better place to play until the expansion hits.
I have no clue as to what this means for me. It sounds like all of my friends plan on transferring. I also don't know if they plan on disbanding the guild. I could long in one day without a guild. Ultimately it doesn't really matter. Chances are once I am sure of where Graylo is going to land I will transfer my serious alts there.
The biggest impact to me is probably just the opportunity it provides in the future. If I do decide to transfer some time in the future their new server would obviously be a potential target because of the friends I will have there. It sounds like they are headed for the Garona server. It is a Central time-zone PvE server that is very alliance dominated. It doesn't sound like a bad place to land.
Graypal Update:
Dead in the water. Nothing is going on with him. I'm not really interested in him right now because I can't raid him, I don't PvP, and I would rather level my alts then do random quests with him. I really don't see much happening with him until the expansion. I haven't paid much attention the Spriest changes in WotLK, but my quick looks have me interested and worried a little bit. I may have to do a post on Spriest changes coming up.
Grayfel Update:
Grayfel is now about 8 bars into level 67 and things are going fairly well. He won't be 70 before the end of August, but hopefully it won't be to long. A while ago I talked about my spec. At the time I was 41 Affliction with 10 or so in Destruction. I wasn't happy with it because I was ripping aggro of my pet quite a bit and fears can be dangerous. After talking to some people in game and looking at some of the comments I got here I decided to give Demonology a try. I am currently 15/43/0. At first I liked it. I was killing things at about the same rate and I wasn't ripping aggro off the Felguard. However, I have started to go sour on Demonology. I may not be ripping aggro off of him but I spend a lot of time healing the pet. I guess I expected him to be tougher.
Anyway, I'm thinking of respecing again. The question is should I try Destro or go back to Affliction. Right now I think I'm leaning towards trying Destro. I'm obviously used to playing a nuker with Graylo. The really question is what pet I should use. Do I go for a Voidwalker tank, or more DPS from an imp or Succubus. If any one has a spec that I should try please let me know, also let me know which pet I should use.
Graysin Update:
You may be asking "Who's Graysin?" He is a Blood Elf Paladin that I started a couple of months ago on the Cho'gall server. If you don't know Cho'gall is a central time-zone PvP server with a very strong raiding community. It has three guilds that have cleared Sunwell. An Alliance guild is ranked number 10 in the world and the top Horde guild Death Wish is ranked 16th in the world according to WowJutsu. He is currently level 21 and spec as Retribution.
I created him for a couple of reasons. First, I created him when I was still in WA with Graylo and was having issues. Its nice sometimes to do something when no one can see you. I also had a desire to try out a PvP server and see some of the horde areas. I chose paladin because I have recently be come interested in tanking as a pally, and I figured that if I ever decided to raid with him horde guilds would need paladins much like alliance guilds need shaman. I never really expected to get him this high of a level, but I keep coming back to him every so often. I think it is because it is so easy to accomplish something when your toon is so low of a level. You put in a couple of hours and hour toon jumps a level or two. When compared to Grayfel that is lightning fast. I put 3 or 4 hours into Grayfel last night and only got him a third of the way through a level.
Anyway, I don't really expect him to be a serious effort but who knows.
One last thing. I have praised WoW-Pro.com before for its excellent and free leveling guides. I used Jamie's Alliance guide to take Graylo from 30 - 60. For Graysin I have used Snowflake's two blood elf guides 1-12 and 12-21. I highly recommend both. They are very well written with great maps and pictures. If your looking to level a bloodelf or just want to check out Ghostlands on your new little horde toon, check these guides out.
Graytom Update:
I had expected him to be my 4th 70 after Grayfel, but I now expect he will go permanently inactive like my warrior and hunter. I am still very interested in playing a shaman in general but I think he got started at the wrong time. I'm not going to pay 25 dollars to transfer a level 14 toon to a new server. Plus with most of my friends leaving Eitrigg there won't be much point in me hang around there. If I do deside to play a shaman again I will probably just start a new one on whatever server I have Graylo on.
Anyway, that is my wow life in a nutshell right now. To all of my friends that read this blog please keep in touch. It would be good to hear what is going on with you guys in the comments or in the email.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Is Spell Hit being Devalued?
EDIT #2: Goes to show how much I have been looking at Elitest Jerks lately. Apparently there is a thread there that details all of the Combat Ratings. You can find it here. Special Thanks to Phae and Erdluf for pointing it out.
EDIT: It appears that the picture I saw is wrong. Here is a link to the picture I was using (link). I posted a question on the WoW forums asking is someone could check it out and I got this response from Wisprunner. Apparently the ratings buster addon had it at 26.231. Of course I don't have any idea if this correct but it does bring it in line with the increases to crit and haste. Wisprunner also said that the ratings buster addon had melee hit at 32.7, so it is likely that addons are having trouble distinguishing between Melee items and Caster Items. Its not all that surprising given that that they have collapsed the melee and caster versions of each stat into one stat. Anyway, crisis averted.
P.S. Wisprunner is a very knowledgeable moonkin if your looking for answers on the WoW forums or Moonkin Repository. However, make sure you read the stickies be for you ask your question.
Disclaimer: I want to say that I have no concrete evidence that Hit is being devalued for casters. I don't have access to the beta and I haven't talked to anyone who does about this. This post is being created using second hand information and addons that may or may not be correct. So, don't get to worked up about this if it disturbs you. I could be completely wrong.
Is Hit Rating being devalued for spell casters?
I was reviewing the new dungeon drops on MMO-Champion when I noticed that one of the items had a crit rating and then a percent chance to crit next to the crit rating.
My first reaction was "cool, I can calculate the new stat values."
If you didn't know the ratings stats decrease in value as you increase in level. This gives blizzard a way to improve gear without increasing crit, hit and haste to unreasonable levels. At level 70, 22.06 Crit rating will give a caster a 1% chance to crit. However at level 80 the same amount of crit rating will give you a far less chance to crit.
So, I looked at all of the items that appeared to be caster items and tried to calculate how much of each stat you would need to give you 1% of that stat.
Currently you need 22.06 Crit rating, 12.6 Hit rating, and 15.7 Haste rating to get 1% of each stat.
According to these pictures from MMO Champion you will need 46 Crit rating, 32.7 Hit rating, and 32.7 Haste rating. If you compare these numbers to the stats at level 70, then there is a 103% increase in Crit rating, 108% increase in Haste rating, and a 160% increase in Hit rating.
160% That's HUGE.
Granted the stat numbers for Haste and Hit are the same, so this could very well be an error.
I'm not spouting any doom and gloom if it is correct. Obviously Blizzard is going to have to itemize for it and it will make Improved FF much more valuable. However, It will change my stat valuations quite a bit. Spell Hit might not be the king of all stats any longer.
EDIT: It appears that the picture I saw is wrong. Here is a link to the picture I was using (link). I posted a question on the WoW forums asking is someone could check it out and I got this response from Wisprunner. Apparently the ratings buster addon had it at 26.231. Of course I don't have any idea if this correct but it does bring it in line with the increases to crit and haste. Wisprunner also said that the ratings buster addon had melee hit at 32.7, so it is likely that addons are having trouble distinguishing between Melee items and Caster Items. Its not all that surprising given that that they have collapsed the melee and caster versions of each stat into one stat. Anyway, crisis averted.
P.S. Wisprunner is a very knowledgeable moonkin if your looking for answers on the WoW forums or Moonkin Repository. However, make sure you read the stickies be for you ask your question.
Disclaimer: I want to say that I have no concrete evidence that Hit is being devalued for casters. I don't have access to the beta and I haven't talked to anyone who does about this. This post is being created using second hand information and addons that may or may not be correct. So, don't get to worked up about this if it disturbs you. I could be completely wrong.
Is Hit Rating being devalued for spell casters?
I was reviewing the new dungeon drops on MMO-Champion when I noticed that one of the items had a crit rating and then a percent chance to crit next to the crit rating.
My first reaction was "cool, I can calculate the new stat values."
If you didn't know the ratings stats decrease in value as you increase in level. This gives blizzard a way to improve gear without increasing crit, hit and haste to unreasonable levels. At level 70, 22.06 Crit rating will give a caster a 1% chance to crit. However at level 80 the same amount of crit rating will give you a far less chance to crit.
So, I looked at all of the items that appeared to be caster items and tried to calculate how much of each stat you would need to give you 1% of that stat.
Currently you need 22.06 Crit rating, 12.6 Hit rating, and 15.7 Haste rating to get 1% of each stat.
According to these pictures from MMO Champion you will need 46 Crit rating, 32.7 Hit rating, and 32.7 Haste rating. If you compare these numbers to the stats at level 70, then there is a 103% increase in Crit rating, 108% increase in Haste rating, and a 160% increase in Hit rating.
160% That's HUGE.
Granted the stat numbers for Haste and Hit are the same, so this could very well be an error.
I'm not spouting any doom and gloom if it is correct. Obviously Blizzard is going to have to itemize for it and it will make Improved FF much more valuable. However, It will change my stat valuations quite a bit. Spell Hit might not be the king of all stats any longer.
Monday, August 25, 2008
More Moonkin Blue Posts
Ghostcrawler graced the WotLK Beta forums over the weekend and had this to say regarding Improved Moonkin Form: (link)
"The plan is for it to go raid wide.
Given the talents avaiable to deep Balance, I hope it's obvious that we are trying to make the Moonkin a very competitive spellcaster. Some of the concerns from BC (e.g. running out of mana, lack of AE or CC, not enough group synergy) should be aleviated by now."
This is pretty big news for moonkin. I have been wondering if Moonkin Aura would go raid wide. Since most other buffs are now raid wide it only makes sense. Why would you bring a moonkin who can buff one party when you can bringa shaman who will buff the entire raid.
I have to agree with Ghostcrawler, in that Blizzard has addressed a lot of our traditional issues. Our mana regen is good, we have a repeatable (but somewhat underpowered) AoE, indoor CC, and improved raid viability. I think most long time moonkin will agree that these are good changed that address our main Pre-WotLK issues.
However, I am still nervously awaiting the Balance Revision that sounds to be almost complete. What are they going to do with Earth and Moon? Are they going to do anything to improve Eclipse? Are they going to do something to reduce the bloat in the balance tree? Stay tuned. As soon as I know something, you will see it here.
"The plan is for it to go raid wide.
Given the talents avaiable to deep Balance, I hope it's obvious that we are trying to make the Moonkin a very competitive spellcaster. Some of the concerns from BC (e.g. running out of mana, lack of AE or CC, not enough group synergy) should be aleviated by now."
This is pretty big news for moonkin. I have been wondering if Moonkin Aura would go raid wide. Since most other buffs are now raid wide it only makes sense. Why would you bring a moonkin who can buff one party when you can bringa shaman who will buff the entire raid.
I have to agree with Ghostcrawler, in that Blizzard has addressed a lot of our traditional issues. Our mana regen is good, we have a repeatable (but somewhat underpowered) AoE, indoor CC, and improved raid viability. I think most long time moonkin will agree that these are good changed that address our main Pre-WotLK issues.
However, I am still nervously awaiting the Balance Revision that sounds to be almost complete. What are they going to do with Earth and Moon? Are they going to do anything to improve Eclipse? Are they going to do something to reduce the bloat in the balance tree? Stay tuned. As soon as I know something, you will see it here.
Friday, August 22, 2008
WotLK Update: Beta Build 8820
Wow. Two posts in one day.
Anyway, I checked the build updates on MMO-Champion and looked at the beta forums hand found a couple of Moonkin things to comment on.
Talent Changes:
* Celestial Focus (Tier 4) reduces the casting time lost when damaged by 25/50/70% when casting wrath. (Previously reduced interrupt chance)
* Control of Nature (Tier 2) reduces casting time lost when damaged by 40/70/100% while casting Entangling Roots and Cyclone. (Previously reduced interrupt chance)
Nothing really earth shattering. The developers hinted at changes to these types of talents when they made the change to spell-push back.
From my PvE standpoint it probably won't have a huge impact. It is probably a bigger change for PvP, with the old talent push back would have been a lot more random and spikey. This change it will smooth it out and all wraths will cast in 1.8 seconds if your getting beat on. In my opinion consistancy is good, so I like this change.
PvP Gear Released:
They've released a lot of the PvP gear available from Arena and BGs. Here are some links: Honor and Arena.
As you probably know, I'm not a big PvPer, but the PvP moonkin I have seen on the forums seem fairly pleased with all of the crit on the gear. Oddly enough, the set bonuses are exactly the same as the current PvP sets. However, this isn't the reason I'm posting this info.
Check out the names on the items. I have heard moonkin called a lot of things, but I think it's funny that Blizzard is calling us "Nuker's." I don't know why it amuses me but it does. Of course, these names aren't the final names, and it is a good description of our role. It just struck me a little funny.
Blue Post:
There is a new moonkin related Blue post on the Beta Forums. Don't get excited. You can find the thread here.
Ashthra posted a fairly good summary of some of the talents causing our bloat issue. She primarily talks about the redundancy in our push-back talents, mana regen talents, and damage talents.
Koraa, a class designer, decided to grace the thread with his blue letters. While I like the attention from a Blizzard employee I find his response worrisome. He said:
"Currently working on a polish pass of the Balance tree. Get ready for more bloat! "
I may be reading into the statement to much, but it has me worried for a couple of reasons.
1) "Polish Pass" - While moonkin have had some very nice changes in some of the lower tiers of the tree, the top three tiers leave a lot to be desired. Eclipse, is almost useless. PvPers say that Typhoon doesn't work, Gail Winds will be ignored due to bloat, and Starfall seems very situational at best. Earth and Moon needs work also but Koraa already said they were going to relook at it.
I guess my question is, what does he mean by "polish pass?" Is it that they have done a lot of work on the tree and need to "polish" it before they release it to a beta build? The other possibility is, are they happy where the current tree beta build and are just want to make some small changes to "polish" it? The former would be great, but for some reason I suspect it is the later.
2) "Get ready for more bloat! " - This has to be a joke, but I'm not sure that it is. Koraa's prior comments on bloat made it seem that they wanted players to make choices and were not really interested in reducing the bloat. My worry is that he is hinting that the changes to Earth and Moon are going to make the Bloat worse. Most moonkin currently plan on putting only 3 points into E&M. If they improve the talent to where 5 points is desirable, I don't know where I will take the points from.
I keep telling myself this has to be a joke. Otherwise its just mean.
Anyway, I checked the build updates on MMO-Champion and looked at the beta forums hand found a couple of Moonkin things to comment on.
Talent Changes:
* Celestial Focus (Tier 4) reduces the casting time lost when damaged by 25/50/70% when casting wrath. (Previously reduced interrupt chance)
* Control of Nature (Tier 2) reduces casting time lost when damaged by 40/70/100% while casting Entangling Roots and Cyclone. (Previously reduced interrupt chance)
Nothing really earth shattering. The developers hinted at changes to these types of talents when they made the change to spell-push back.
From my PvE standpoint it probably won't have a huge impact. It is probably a bigger change for PvP, with the old talent push back would have been a lot more random and spikey. This change it will smooth it out and all wraths will cast in 1.8 seconds if your getting beat on. In my opinion consistancy is good, so I like this change.
PvP Gear Released:
They've released a lot of the PvP gear available from Arena and BGs. Here are some links: Honor and Arena.
As you probably know, I'm not a big PvPer, but the PvP moonkin I have seen on the forums seem fairly pleased with all of the crit on the gear. Oddly enough, the set bonuses are exactly the same as the current PvP sets. However, this isn't the reason I'm posting this info.
Check out the names on the items. I have heard moonkin called a lot of things, but I think it's funny that Blizzard is calling us "Nuker's." I don't know why it amuses me but it does. Of course, these names aren't the final names, and it is a good description of our role. It just struck me a little funny.
Blue Post:
There is a new moonkin related Blue post on the Beta Forums. Don't get excited. You can find the thread here.
Ashthra posted a fairly good summary of some of the talents causing our bloat issue. She primarily talks about the redundancy in our push-back talents, mana regen talents, and damage talents.
Koraa, a class designer, decided to grace the thread with his blue letters. While I like the attention from a Blizzard employee I find his response worrisome. He said:
"Currently working on a polish pass of the Balance tree. Get ready for more bloat! "
I may be reading into the statement to much, but it has me worried for a couple of reasons.
1) "Polish Pass" - While moonkin have had some very nice changes in some of the lower tiers of the tree, the top three tiers leave a lot to be desired. Eclipse, is almost useless. PvPers say that Typhoon doesn't work, Gail Winds will be ignored due to bloat, and Starfall seems very situational at best. Earth and Moon needs work also but Koraa already said they were going to relook at it.
I guess my question is, what does he mean by "polish pass?" Is it that they have done a lot of work on the tree and need to "polish" it before they release it to a beta build? The other possibility is, are they happy where the current tree beta build and are just want to make some small changes to "polish" it? The former would be great, but for some reason I suspect it is the later.
2) "Get ready for more bloat! " - This has to be a joke, but I'm not sure that it is. Koraa's prior comments on bloat made it seem that they wanted players to make choices and were not really interested in reducing the bloat. My worry is that he is hinting that the changes to Earth and Moon are going to make the Bloat worse. Most moonkin currently plan on putting only 3 points into E&M. If they improve the talent to where 5 points is desirable, I don't know where I will take the points from.
I keep telling myself this has to be a joke. Otherwise its just mean.
Muckbeast: The Anti-Raider
All long time wow players have heard the arguments playing WoW from the Anti-MMO community. We have all heard about the jobs lost, the relationships ruined, and all sorts of problems caused by playing MMO's.
Over the past week or so there is a new player in this debate. Enter Muckbeast. His blog is here if you want to take a look at it. His primary focus seems to be the gaming industry as a whole but he has written a couple of anti-mmo articles with titles like "Raiding Provides a False, Deceptive Sense of Real Accomplishment" and "Fed up! Raiding sucks as a sole form of end game content." He has tried to promote these articles by posting comments on quite a few blogs and edited the WoWwiki page on Raids (It has since been removed by the WoWWiki folks). Also, he has not posted a comment on my blog as far as I know.
Normally I don't pay a lot of attention to this sort of stuff but after seeing this guy pop up in several places on the internet I wanted to comment on it. My opinion on this topic is fairly simple. Is it the game's/activities fault or is it the participants fault?
First off, why are video games worse then other activities? What about the guy that goes out and plays rec football 4 or 5 nights a week and watches games on TV all weekend? Is he not ignoring his family also? What about the parent that dedicates all of their time to their professional lives ignoring their spouse and kids? Why is that more acceptable in society?
The fact of the matter is that they all share the same problem. Life is about balance, and if you push it off balance it's going to cause problems no matter what pushed it off balance. I am not an expert but it is likely that these people with obsessive behavior would focus their attention on another subject if their current interest wasn't available. So why is it raiding's fault?
On the flip side, Muckbeast ignores all of the positive things that can and have happened because of MMO's. I have heard multiple stories, both online and from people in game, about how WoW has brought their family closer together. I know parents that have gotten to spend more time with their kids because they are able to play the game together. I know of one girl who uses her WoW time spend some time with her brother who is serving in the military in Iraq right now. I know of many married couples that play the game together. Sure, all of these people could have found another way to attain all of these goals, but if they like WoW, why do they have to?
My basic point is you shouldn't blame the MMO or an activity for a person's problems. The MMO may highlight or exagerate a person's problem, but it doesn't create the problem. So if you want to fix the problem, go to the person, not the game.
Reactions from other Bloggers:
Lume the Madd - A public response: Stop telling people how to game.
World of Matticus - One Way to Piss Off a Blogger (Don’t Do It).
Over the past week or so there is a new player in this debate. Enter Muckbeast. His blog is here if you want to take a look at it. His primary focus seems to be the gaming industry as a whole but he has written a couple of anti-mmo articles with titles like "Raiding Provides a False, Deceptive Sense of Real Accomplishment" and "Fed up! Raiding sucks as a sole form of end game content." He has tried to promote these articles by posting comments on quite a few blogs and edited the WoWwiki page on Raids (It has since been removed by the WoWWiki folks). Also, he has not posted a comment on my blog as far as I know.
Normally I don't pay a lot of attention to this sort of stuff but after seeing this guy pop up in several places on the internet I wanted to comment on it. My opinion on this topic is fairly simple. Is it the game's/activities fault or is it the participants fault?
First off, why are video games worse then other activities? What about the guy that goes out and plays rec football 4 or 5 nights a week and watches games on TV all weekend? Is he not ignoring his family also? What about the parent that dedicates all of their time to their professional lives ignoring their spouse and kids? Why is that more acceptable in society?
The fact of the matter is that they all share the same problem. Life is about balance, and if you push it off balance it's going to cause problems no matter what pushed it off balance. I am not an expert but it is likely that these people with obsessive behavior would focus their attention on another subject if their current interest wasn't available. So why is it raiding's fault?
On the flip side, Muckbeast ignores all of the positive things that can and have happened because of MMO's. I have heard multiple stories, both online and from people in game, about how WoW has brought their family closer together. I know parents that have gotten to spend more time with their kids because they are able to play the game together. I know of one girl who uses her WoW time spend some time with her brother who is serving in the military in Iraq right now. I know of many married couples that play the game together. Sure, all of these people could have found another way to attain all of these goals, but if they like WoW, why do they have to?
My basic point is you shouldn't blame the MMO or an activity for a person's problems. The MMO may highlight or exagerate a person's problem, but it doesn't create the problem. So if you want to fix the problem, go to the person, not the game.
Reactions from other Bloggers:
Lume the Madd - A public response: Stop telling people how to game.
World of Matticus - One Way to Piss Off a Blogger (Don’t Do It).
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